In the general practice of photographing with a still camera the part of a patient's body undergoing surgical operation, there are two known methods. In one method, the still camera is built in a shadowless lamp which is used for lighting the operation room and photographs are taken by operating a photographing mechanism attached to the side surface of a lamp-house for the shadowless lamp, while in the other method the still camera to be used for the aforesaid purpose is not built into the shadowless lamp but it functions to photograph the affected part of a patient's body by independently photographing the patient.
Selection of the method depends on the object, photographing conditions, frequency of photographing and other factors.
In the former method, using a still camera built into the shadowless lamp itself, the camera and the stroboscopic lamp are set at a position with respect to the lamp structure where the shooting conditions are optimum for the intended purpose. Thus the former method has the advantage of being able to arrange for optimum lighting for shooting the affected part of a patient's body thus being assured of obtaining the most favorable photograph for a clinical record, and this method has the disadvantage that since the photographs are always taken from a fixed angle or position, multi-angle shooting which is often required is impossible.
By contrast the latter method, using a standard still camera not built into the shadowless lamp, has the advantage of the aforesaid multi-angle shooting being possible but the disadvantage that since the affected part of a patient's body which is to be photographed usually faces the direction of incidence of the light from the shadowless lamp, photographing with an independent still camera positioned at an angle different from the incidence-angle of the light from the shadowless lamp often times can not be performed under adequate lighting and accordingly the resulting photo will not be satisfactory for the clinical record.
Under such circumstances the present invention is related to a photographic flash device to be used together with a shadowless lamp for surgical operation. The device has the advantage that it can be installed in the shadowless lamp and a flash, or light from a stroboscopic unit, positioned in or connected to the independent still camera can be effectively focused on the light-receiving unit of said flash device, thereby assuring the best lighting condition for photography. Heretofore, there has been no device available resembling the flash device for photography under the shadowless lamp lighting as comprehended by the present invention.